Evaporator panels



INVENTOR.

April 14, 1964 c. c. EVETT EvAPoRAToR PANELS Filed Dec. l2, 1961 United States Patent O 3,129,268 EVAPORATR PANELS Ciaude C. Evett, Northport, Mich., assigner to Standard Manufacturing Company, Cedar Falls, Iowa, a corporation of Iowa Filed Dec. 12, 1961, Ser. No. 158,855 1 Claim. (Cl. 261-104) The present invention relates to humidifying apparatus and specifically to an improved type of evaporator panel particularly designed for use in conventional types of humidifier units designed for Warm air furnaces.

It is the general aim of the invention to provide a more efficient, more durable and generally more acceptable panel than heretofore developed in the prior art. To this end, it is among the objects of the invention to provide a panel capable of greater evaporating capacity per unit area than commonly accomplished heretofore, yet at the same time of long-lasting, practically unbreakable, nonclogging, non-dripping design.

A further object is to provide such an improved panel in what may be termed a universal type, usable in connection with many and varied types of commercial humidifying units presently on the market.

A still further object of the invention is the provision of an evaporator panel capable of being easily cleaned and renovated even after a long period of use, yet comparatively inexpensive to manufacture, light in weight, and not susceptible to accidental breakage in use nor to damage in shipping.

A present preferred example of the teachings of the present invention is illustrated in the drawings attached to and forming a part of the present specification, wherein:

FIGURE l is a perspective view of a typical humidifier, showing the usual manner of utilization of evaporator panels according to the present invention;

FIGURE 2 is a detail cross-sectional view taken substantially on the plane of the line 2--2 of FIGURE l; and

FIGURE 3 is a cross-sectional view of a single evaporator panel constructed in accordance with the present teachings.

While evaporator panels according to the present invention may be used in many and varied types of humidiiiers, a typical installation may be as shown in FIGURE l, wherein a relatively long, shallow, open-topped pan It) is mounted on a front plate l1 in a manner such that the pan may be held in suspended position within the plenum chamber of a furnace by mounting the front plate over a suitable opening in a vertical surface of the furnace housing as by screws extending through the holes 12 and allowing the pan 10 to project inwardly through the opening into the warm air region of the furnace. The pan l is generally provided with a controlled water feed mechanism which, as illustrated in the present disclosure, consists of a valve 14 attached to a water supply tube 13, with a thermostat tube l extending inwardly from the front plate above the pan and arranged to open or close the valve I4 which cooperates with a manual adjusting screw 1.6 to provide a regulated water supply. A drip cup 17 and tube 1S may also be provided, together with appropriate overfiow connections as exemplified by the pipe nipple 19. As is well understood in the art, the instrumentalities heretofore described, which may be of any conventional form, function to maintain a constant supply of water within the pan at a controlled water level as indicated at 21 (FIGURE 2).

This body of water, positioned within the hot air chamber of the furnace, obviously provides means for increasing the humidity of the air passing therethrough. It is lthe purpose of the present invention, however, to provide means for greatly increasing the capacity of such a humidi- ICC fier, and particularly to provide improved evaporator panels having unique features of structure whereby the aforementioned objects of the invention are accomplished 1n a manner superior to that of panels heretofore known in the art.

The individual evaporator panels of the present invention, designated generally by the numeral 22, comprise in their over-all construction a laminated, semi-rigid flat plate of keystone shape, capable of drawing a relatively large amount of water from the pan 10 by the inherent wicking action of the material forming the center lamination of the panel, with means for facilitating rapid evaporation to effect a continuous high rate of humidification of the air passing in the proximity of the panel. The panel consists of two layers 23 of stiff, open mesh screening between which is positioned one or more layers 24 of unwoven, high-wicking cotton fibre.

The illustrated panel, as best shown in FIGURE 2, is wide across its upper edge and quite narrow at the bottom so that when inserted in a conventional humidifier pan in the manner shown, the upper corners 25 and 26 overhang the pan flanges 27 and 28 considerably, although the lowermost edge 29 of the panel is narrow enough to be easily received even within the narrower types of humidifier pans in conventional use.

The top, bottom and both side edges of each of the panels are preferably covered with a fabric binding material 31 which may be applied by conventional stitching as indicated at 32, but it is to be noted that the side edges 33 and 34 slant inwardly at an acute angle with respect to each other and are straight throughout the entire height of the panel, so that tendency to cause dripping over the edges of the pan (often encountered with panels of other shapes), is avoided. The screen laminations 23, which in actual practice are preferably formed of conventional aluminum Window screening (formed of wires of about 0.012 inch diameter, and spaced about 14 to 18 wires to the inch) provide sufiicient support for the central wicking layer as to avoid sagging or collapse, and the binding and stitching around the peripheral edges of the panel hold the interior wicking thereof in sufficiently compacted condition to provide most efficient wicking action. The panel may also be provided with a few vertical lines of stitching on the interior area of the panel surface as designated at 35, 36 and 37, to achieve a similar effect.

The individual panels may be apertured in the manner shown at 3S (FIGURE 2) to permit utilization of panels of the dimensions and proportions shown in connection with humidifier units wherein there is a thermostat tube such as l5 or similar structure positioned closely above the longitudinal center line lof the device.

From the foregoing it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that evaporator panels made according to the present teachings have several rather sharply defined advantages over the types of panels commonly known in the prior art. For one thing, the present invention provides what may be termed a universal type of panel, suitable in many and varied types of humidifiers now on the commercial market, since the plates are so designed and so shaped that they may be successfully utilized in devices wherein the individual panels are supported on a central rod or beam, or may be utilized with equal convenience with other types of humidifiers wherein the individual panels are supported solely by the pan in which they are placed or by a bracket carried within the pan. More important, however, is the fact that the present invention provides greater efficiency and greater water evaporating capacity than heretofore achieved by comparable devices. This is due to the unique combination of a central lamination of high-wicking cotton fibre, confined and supported by semi-rigid open mesh stiff screening, since this combination is effective not only to draw water upwardly from the pan into the body of the evaporator panel, but is also effective to permit a high evaporation rate per unit area of the exposed surface. In addition, it is to be particularly observed that while periodic replacement of any known type of panel is obviously desirable, yet the present invention is much more easily cleaned and renovated than other types merely by slight manipulation of the panel surface with the lingers, enough to dislodge encrustations of lime and mineral matter without damaging the screen or wicking of the panel itself. Such cleaning, or cleaning by scraping, wire brushing, or otherwise, may obviously be done without the danger of breakage to which certain prior art devices are so susceptible. In this connection it may also be commented that, unlike certain rigid or fragile evaporator panels of the prior art, the devices according to the present invention are light in weight and thus inexpensive to ship and easy to pack for shipping, and not at all subject to breakage in transit.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by United States Letters Patent is:

An evaporator panel for a humidifier comprising, in combination, a thin, flat, relatively exible self-supporting lamination comprising at least two layers of thin, stiff, open-mesh screen overlying each other and secured to each other at least partially around their peripheral edges; with at least one layer of unwoven, absorbent, high-wicking cotton iibre confined between the aforesaid layers of screen; with means for maintaining said fibre in partially compacted condition between the layers of screen consisting of edge bindings of fabric material spanning said layer yof cotton fibre and said two layers of screen and overlapping the screen layers, said fabric being held by peripheral stitching extending substanially completely around the periphery of the evaporator panel and enclosing the edges of the screen layers thereof, together with additional stitching within the central area of said panel to facilitate vertical capillary action; said panel being substantially wider in its upper portions than in the lower portions thereof, with the opposite side edges of the panel relatively straight throughout the height of the panel and inwardly slanted at an acute angle with respect to each other.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,790,993 Matteson Feb. 3, 1931 1,837,213 Galloway Dec. 22, 1931 1,842,489 Partridge Jan. 26, 1932 2,173,338 Morris Sept. 19, 1939 2,366,906 Hester Jan. 9, 1945 2,480,641 Galloway Aug. 30, 1949 2,839,279 Harris et al June 17, 1958 2,904,258 Miller Sept. 15, 1959 2,965,098 Skerritt Dec. 20, 1960 3,052,416 Stephen Sept, 4, 1962 

